I'm currently in Los Angeles. I may be moving to the Baltimore DC area. I shop through trendsource and Best Mark. Does anyone know which companies will allow me to continue shopping if i was to move to the Baltimore/DC area?

They will all allow you to continue shopping. Are you asking which MSCs from among the hundreds listed have shops in that area? IF that is the question, then the answer is that most of them have shops in that major metropolitan area.

Both TrendSource and Bestmark do have shops in the Baltimore/DC area. Are those the only two companies you shop with? There's a list at the bottom of the forum with a lot of other companies you could sign up with. Many of them probably have shops in the Baltimore/DC area.

I guess I meant to ask which companies have the MOST shops in that area.

That's not a question that usually gets answered on the forum. The reason is that which company has the most shops in a particular area may well be unique to that particular area. The forum members who know about the particular area you are asking about are posters who live there and are currently doing the shops. They are shoppers who you will be competing with for jobs when you move to that area. Most successful shoppers spend a lot of time working on their client lists and they are worth a lot of money to them. Most are not anxious to share their client lists with their competitors. If you are shopping with only two companies, you probably do not view mystery shopping as a business and are just picking up a few bucks here and there. There are many posters here who view mystery shopping as a business and run their business as independent contractors just as any independent contractor runs a business.

Both have work in that area. If you are looking for others to sign up with @#$%& YOU SIGN UP WITH ALL 200 ON THE LIST OR YOU'RE NOT A REAL MYSTERY SHOPPER.

No seriously here's a bunch. Amusement Advantage, Customer Service Experts, A Closer Look, Market Force, Reality Based, Bare International, Monterrey, Market Viewpoint, Intellishop, Customer Impact, Compliance Solutions Worldwide, Beyond Hell.o, About Face, Phantom Shopper.

National Shopping Service has lots of different shops in those areas!

I am in this region. There are tons and tons of shops, with at least 80 percent of the 200 MSCs on the list active in the region.

I know I schedule shops in that area as well. Please be sure you are signed up with us! Ritter Associates

Service Scouts has game events in the DC area.

Thank you all. You've been a big help. one more thing. What is the best way to become a certified MSPA shopper?

AFAIK, there's only one way to get MSPA certification and that is through their website.

[www.mspa-na.org]

If I'm already making money shopping is it worth obtaining? What are the major benefits?

As an experienced shopper, getting Gold certification had no meaningful benefit for me. The content was elementary after shopping for many years and participating on this forum. And I haven't suddenly seen an increase in available shops or higher pay. With one company I do see some hotel shops I didn't see before, but none of them are less than a 6 hour flight away.

Certification might be good for you though. Certification seems to work best as a way for new shoppers to jump-start their relationships with new MSC's. And if you're only really working with 2 companies you've got lots of potential to expand!

As experience shoppers have any of you been able to make a decent living off MS alone?

"Decent living" varies drastically from person to person as well as from area to area. No, I'm not earning nearly as much as I did before I retired from being a stock broker. Yes, because my wants and needs are pretty modest so on an annual basis I don't generally go into retirement funds except for special projects and can bank usually about half of my social security because shops cover quite a large portion of my monthly expenses. Do I have a smart phone and the cost of service associated with that? No, not interested. Do I have a gym membership? Yes it is provided through my Medicare Advantage plan. Do I have a vehicle that is less than 3 years old? No, I love my 1999 Ford F150 that never seems to break down and just keeps going and going and going. Do I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu etc. etc.? No, I'm not much fond of watching TV except for the news and there are so few movies I would even watch for free that there is rarely even much I want to pick up from the public library's DVD collection. I own my own home so my biggest expenses with it annually are homeowner insurance and taxes. My point is that depending on how you spend money, shopping may 'decently' cover it or not.

So it is possible to pay basic needs (rent, food, utilities) from just shopping? I've just started in June and its fun and good side money but I wouldn't mind doing it more full time since I travel alot.

There are a lot of variables to consider, too many for anyone to just say yes or no. Stick with what you're doing now and eventually you will be able to make that decision based on your own lifestyle and experiences.

Thank you, LisaSTL. That was precisely the point I was making.

If I had a $300 car payment per month, a $500 rent payment, a $100 cell phone bill and a $100 utility bill, I would need to come up with $1000 per month before any shopping expenses or other living expenses at all. If I was doing $10 shops, I could cover this first $1000 by doing 100 of them. 3 shops per day would be pretty readily available, but I had better do at least 5 to make sure I covered any shop expenses and possible rejected shops. Of course I still have not eaten or partaken of any of life's other little niceties. In my market I could probably find 5 $10 shops per day, though more realistically it would be a mix of $5, $10, $15 and the occasional higher paying shop. In my market I would be spending hours on the internet looking for work to fill out my schedule. And of course shops don't nicely line up with 5 for every day of the month. They skew to the front of the month and the end of the month so I might have 8-10 every day the first week of the month and the last of the month. This is, after all, not a steady business.

Do the math for your own situation and you will know just what you need to get out of it. I use $10 as an example amount because in my market at that rate I could probably find enough jobs to cover. Personally I have changed over mostly to a lifestyle shopper because Social Security is an additional source of income. And with my situation I am looking more for useful reimbursements than for cold hard cash.

Thanks. It is always a question that makes me nervous. While there are shoppers making a living, the phrase alone doesn't really provide a definitive answer. Knowing nothing about the shopper asking the question terrifies me. On one hand I have no desire to discourage anyone who thinks full time mystery shopping may work for them. On the other is the nagging worry someone will make a life altering decision based on the experiences of shoppers with entirely different life circumstances.

Anyone in Los Angeles? What agencies have the most California/LA shops???

The same list of 200 MSC's linked at the bottom of this page which includes those MSC's that have the most Baltimore/DC shops also includes those MSC's that have the most California/LA shops.

Please know, Los Angeles has one of the, if not the highest concentration of Mystery Shoppers in the US. Sign up with every company on the list, and be prepared for stiff competition and very few bonuses. Not to be discouraging, its just the truth. A lot of out of work writers and actors, not to mention the large amount of retirees who do this for fun, and why not?. good luck!